Glass-furnace



(No Model.) 2 SheetsSheet 1. W P MODES GLASS FURNACE.

No. 469,406. Patented Feb. 23,1892.

I NVENTOR. flaw, )m

'W/TNESSES. Mot/(M06 2 Sheets-S-heet 2.

IIVVENTOI? flail-W =7. m BY Que 3W ATTORNEY .L M 3 A M A m y Patented Feb. 23. 1892.

W. F. MODES.

GLASS FURNACE.

Hang

(No Model.)

WITNESSES M NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE \VILLIAM F. MODES, OF STREATOR, ILLINOIS.

GLASS-FURNACE.

SFECIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 469,406, dated February 23, 1892.

Application filed June 15, 1891.

T0 at whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, WVILLIAM F. MODES, a citizen of the United States, residing at Streator, in the county of La Salle and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Glass-Furnaces, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to the construction of regenerating and reverberating glass furnaoes. More particularly it relates to features of constructional improvement in the twopart tank-furnaces described and illustrated and the novel features of improvement, which are claimed in United States Letters Patent Nos. 320,951 and 405.317, which were granted to myself on June 30, 1885, and on June 18, 1889, respectively, and it is in view of these patents that I desire the present application to be considered.

The object of the present invention is to embody in and to combine therewith such additional novel features of improvement in the construction of the glass-furnaces, the subject-matter of the aforementioned patents, as to render such furnaces better adapted to serve the purpose of melting the material for glass and preserve the furnace against the disintegrating effect of the intense heat necessarytherefor; and it consists in the novel featuresof construction hereinafterdescribed.

As described in the aforementioned patents, I construct my furnace with a melting-tank divided into two compartments by a bridge wall, forming a cold-air space along the sides and under the bottom of the same, forming in the surrounding walls the regenerating-chamhers, into which is conducted the air for causing combustion with the gas, and generating the necessary temperature, hot air, and gasconduction flues, &c. The floor and walls of the melting-tank are formed of large blocks or slabs of fire-clay, which necessarily have to be held together and retained in position.

In the accompanying drawings, in which like letters of reference denote like parts in the several figures, Figure 1 is a vertical crosssection of my improved furnace as taken on the lines 1 1 in Figs. 2 and 3. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section as taken on the lines 2 2 in Figs. 1 and 3. Fig. 3 is a plan view of $erial No. 396,275. (No model.)

the floor of the melting-tank, showing in dotted lines the longitudinal and transverse iron floor-supports hereinafter described and showing several of the floor-tiles removed. Figs. 4 and 5 are respectively a plan view and side elevation of one of the floor supporting and clamping bars hereinafter described, and Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail view of a cross-section of the longitudinal double T-iron floor-sup porting beams.

It has been found in practice very difficult to properly support the blocks of fire-clay of which the floor of the tank is composed in cases when the blocks crack and also to match or join them, so that the tank would hold melted glass. I have found by experiment that if the under side of the seams between the blocks were left exposed to the ,cooling effect of the air circulating beneath the tanks in the air-space provided therefor, itis unneccessary to so nicely match the joints that they are of themselves molten-glass tight. My improved form of construction is designed to not only afiord support for the blocks when they are broken or cracked, but at the same time to permit this exterior exposure of the floor-seams. To accomplish these ends I construct the melting parts of my furnace as shown in the accompanying drawings.

A represents the side walls of the meltingtanks; B, the floor thereof, composed of the blocks or slabs b of fire-clay.

O is the airspace around the tanks for cooling the exterior of the walls and floor of the melting tanks.

O is the checker brick-work, through which the air from the exterior is passed and mixed with gas, causing combustion for heatingthe material in the tank-compartments D and D.

E are induction-openings in the side walls of the meltingtanks D and D, through which the gas is fed to the melting-tanks.

F is the bridge-wall which separates the two compartments of the melting-tanks.

G is an opening through the bridge-Wall F,

connecting the melting-tank D with the gathering-compartment D.

H is a hollow space extending longitudinally through the bridge-wall F, the two end ppenings of which connect with the exterior of the furnace.

K are supporting-pillars placed at conven ient distances apart in the length and the width of the foundation of the furnace.

L are iron doubleT-beanis (a cross-section of which is shown in Fig. 1 and in detail in Fig. 6) placed longitudinally under the floor of the melting-tank of the furnace and supported on the top of the pillars K. Across the top of these beams, extending across the width of the floor of the melting-tanks, are placed the fiat iron bars M with their ends turned up, as indicated in Figs. 1 and 4.

Hermetically sealed in the exterior ends of the air-space G in the bridge-wall are secured the force blast-pipes N.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 3, the iron supporting-beams and cross-strips, while extending the full length and the full width of the melt ing-tanks D and D, providing support for the blocks of fire-clay even when they are broken or cracked, are not placed immediately under the seams between the blocks b forming the floor of the melting-tanks D and D, but are placed on either side of the same, leaving the under side of the seams or joints fully exposed to the comparatively cool air circulating in the air-chamber surrounding the melting-tanks. Heretofore these supports, when such have been used at all,- have been placed immediately underthe joint, and an attempt made to make such joints molten-glass proof, making use of the same support for adjacent blocks or slats. By placing the sup porting iron beams L and flat bars M a short distance to either side of the crack or opening between the adjacent slabs of fire-clay it has been found by experiment that the said space between them can be left comparatively wide and open, the glass, being congealed or hardened by its exposure to the cooling effect of the air in the surrounding chambers, acting itself as a scaling for the joints.

The other feature of improvement, which I claim as new, is in constructing the air-space Gin the bridge-wall in such manner as to adapt it to have a force-blast driven through it and in the obvious necessity of extending the same and in the addition of the forceblast pipes N. It has been found in practice that merely forming the bridge-wall with an interior air-space for cool air to circulate in is not sufficient to maintain the wall at a temperature sufficiently reduced to protect it against the intense heat of the melting-tanks D and D.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, only those portions of the pipes N have been shown that are immediately connected with the furnace itself. It is intended in the operation of the furnace to connect one of the pipes N to any of the well-known means (not shown) for securing a force-blast therethrough.

The ends of the cross-pieces M are turned up, as shown in Figs. 4, 5, and 1, in order to tie the blocks of tire-clay of which the fioor of the melting-tanks is composed. To the ends of the longitudinal beams L are secured similar upwardly-projecting knee-pieces; or, as shown in Fig. 2, a fiat strip, similarto the crossstrips M, can be placed on the tops of the beams L and the ends of the same turned up, effecting the same purpose, longitudinally.

I claim- 1; In a glass tank-furnace, the herein-described means for supporting the floor-tiles, consisting in continuous stringers of comparatively narrow contact-surface placed immediately beneath the said floor-tiles, so as to freely expose the'cracks or seams between the said floor-tiles, the said stringers being turned up at their ends, substantially as described, and for the purposes specified.

2. In a glass taiilefurnace, the herein-described means for supporting the floor-tiles, consisting in a cage composed of continuous traverse and longitudinal stringers of comparatively narrow contact-surfaces, the said stringers being so placed as to freely expose the cracks or seams between the said fioor- V tiles and the said stringers being independently supported on the tops of pillars, substantially in .the manner described, and for the purposes specified.

In testimony whereof I have affixed ny signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 6th day of June, 1891.

WILLIAM F. MODES.

Witnesses:

J. W. CROOKES, ARTHUR E. MOONEY. 

